Editorial: Who can look into your email?

Anyone else checking their email inbox after getting a lesson in what's fair game when federal officials come to investigate?

Just how easy it is for investigators to get access to your email account sort of takes the voyeuristic edge off of the sordid and tangled web the participants in the Gen. David Petraeus affair were weaving.

Petraeus, of course, resigned as director of the CIA last week after an affair with his biographer was uncovered. That case has all sorts of unanswered questions about how safe the nation's secrets were.

But how federal investigators found that information probably was a wakeup call for most Internet-bound Americans.

That's not to say it's an open window on your computer records. But according to the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, federal officials investigating a suspected crime only need a subpoena approved by a federal prosecutor to harvest electronic messages that are at least six months old.

That's a subpoena from a federal prosecutor, not one from a judge. A judge's order and probable cause are needed for more recent messages. But still, this is a case when the law has not kept up with technology.

When that act was written, electronic messages were sparse compared to today's smartphone, cloud computing reality. Today's email knows no half-life when faced with someone who knows the rudiments of digging into an email account.

There have been proposals in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to change the law so police would need a warrant to get any Internet communication, no matter how old it is.

Law enforcement agencies don't like that idea. But with so much of our lives and work stored on our hard drives - or in web-based Gmail accounts - doesn't it make sense to offer some 21st century protection against unwarranted searches?

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Editorial: Who can look into your email?

Anyone else checking their email inbox after getting a lesson in what's fair game when federal officials come to investigate? Just how easy it is for investigators to get access to your email account